


Mask of the Predator

by Vinnocent



Series: Teen Titans: Morph! [10]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate, DCU, Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Ableist Language, Blood and Gore, Book 5: The Predator, Choking, Drowning, Episode: s01e09 Masks, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Phobias, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 13:09:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1511690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vinnocent/pseuds/Vinnocent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Animorphs reunite to help send Ax home to the Andalites. When plans go quickly awry, the Animorphs are forced to team up with a captured villain against an angry Kyptonian, two Vissers, and the entirety of the Yeerk mothership... all while trying not to drown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Marco was minding his own business. He really, really was. He was just walking home from 7eleven. That was all. Some low-fat milk, a loaf of bread, and a bag of peanut M&Ms in his bag. It was all he’d wanted when he had gone out.

Then he heard it.

“Just don’t hurt me!” an old man’s voice pled desperately. “Just don’t hurt me!”

Marco stopped and pressed his back against the cold brick wall and listened.

“Just give me the money, old man! Don’t make me hurt you!”

“I gave you all of it!”

Marco heard more voices. Three muggers in total. One old man. That didn’t seem quite fair, and something inside him, deeply buried and entirely unreasonable, wanted to even the odds. “This is totally not your problem, Marco,” he whispered to himself. “We just stopped this foolishness, and you want to get in it again? For these punks?”

The old man cried out in pain, and Marco ducked behind a dumpster and stripped off his hoodie and pants, not wanting to shred them. His skin itched as rough black fur spread across his skin. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the morph, and neglected to notice bronze scales that formed, temporarily, here and there across his skin and fell off onto the asphalt beneath him as the fur took over.

His teeth ground together as his jaw stretched out. His face became a black, bulging, rubbery mask, his eyes practically invisible beneath a heavy brow.

“Let’s just kick his butt,” said one of the would-be muggers.

Marco decided he should divert their attention. So he picked up the dumpster and threw it against the far wall of the alley.

CRASH! BOOM!

“Look!” one cried. “What is that thing?!”

“Whoa! That’s some kind of a… of a monkey!”

“Monkey? Dude, _really_?” said a voice above him. And Marco looked up to see a green boy in a purple and black uniform perched on a ledge. If he’d waited five minutes, he wouldn’t have had to do anything stupid. Of course. This was Jump City. Who the hell did he think he was? Of course the Teen Titans, exactly the people he didn’t want to see, would show up.

Beast Boy dropped to ground, smoothly transforming into a green mountain goat. “Get them!” one of the muggers yelled, running toward Marco. Marco grabbed him by the arm and tossed the guy over his shoulder like he was nothing more than a wadded up paper.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!" BOOMPH!

The other two came running at them, one of them pulling a knife on Beast Boy. Beast Boy rolled his goat eyes, and lowered his head, he angled his head at the last second to avoid goring the guy. The knife-wielding mugger ran straight into Beast Boy’s head, and Beast Boy easily bucked him straight over. The knife never even hit.

Marco grabbed the third guy by the shirt collar and tossed him into the dumpster. “Don’t kill me!” the guy cried out as he sailed through the air. <For the record, I did nothing to make him say that,> Marco snapped privately to Beast Boy. He grabbed the knife-wielder and tossed him in after his friend.

BLAM! BLAM!

Both boys ducked down and turned to the first mugger, who was now waving a gun at the two animal heroes.

"Hah! Come and get some, monkey man!" the guy taunted.

Beast Boy shifted back into his normal form. “What am I?” Suddenly, he was a large gamebird. “Cold turkey?”

The mugger turned to Beast Boy, and Marco ducked behind the dumpster. The guy fired on Beast Boy, who had already transformed into a rat and skittered out of view. Marco slammed his gorilla shoulders into the dumpster. It rolled and spun into the mugger.

"Ahhhhh!" BLAMPH!

Beast Boy became a lemur and jumped over to the guy’s side. Humanoid again, he checked the guy’s pulse and breathing. “He’s fine,” he said. He looked around. “Where’s the gun?”

Marco looked around but saw nothing. He shrugged. <I guess that’s your job, hero. I’m gonna find a place to demorph, call 911, find my groceries, and get home in time to watch Letterman.>

“Wow, what a charming personality. I’m supposed to be out looking for Red X, you know, if you weren’t causing trouble.”

Marco mimicked one of Rachel’s hair flips despite the fact that he didn’t have any at the moment. <I know right? And no, I didn’t know about your red ex. We don’t care about you anymore. We stop-->

"G-g-get out of here you… you monster!"

The boys looked at each other, the old man, and each other again. <So that’s where the gun went,> said Marco.

"Back, you demon! Don't come any closer."

Beast Boy raised his hands. “Look, I’m not a--”

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Marco ducked aside. Beast Boy, a lemur again, sailed over the dumpster, grabbed the old man’s arm, and lifted up as he transformed back humanoid, pawprint sneakers hitting asphalt, sending additional shots into the air. He turned and delivered a small, precise blow to the old man’s wrist, just enough to cause pain. The old man dropped the gun, sobbing in fear.

Beast Boy kicked the gun away. “You’re a jerk,” he chastised. “Get out of here!”

The old man booked it out of there as fast as an old man could. Beast Boy sighed, picked up the gun, ejected the cartridge, dumped the bullets, and ejected the bullet remaining the chamber. He dropped the parts to the ground.

Marco stared in amazement. <How did you do that?> he asked.

“Years of training before shoving my butt in dangerous situations, because anything else would be wild and dangerous and escalate the fight,” Beast Boy snarled.

Suitably chastised, Marco grabbed up his clothes and groceries and disappeared into the shadows. Beast Boy glanced at the dumpster. “Wait, you stopped what?” he asked, suddenly remembering what Marco had been saying before the old man had decided to “defend” himself from them. But no reply came.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hello, hero!” Rachel greeted, smirking from the bench she, Jake, and Cassie were waiting at.

“What?” Marco demanded. He cast a glance around to make sure no one was within eavesdropping distance.

Rachel lifted up a newspaper. She looked smug. “Some old geezer is rambling about demon monkeys beating the shit out of muggers in your neighborhood.”

Marco blanched. “That was Beast Boy.”

Jake sighed and stood up. “There were two, Marco,” he said as he started walking toward the forest. Rachel dropped the paper in a trash bin and scrambled after him. Cassie hung back and pulled on Marco’s arm gently to urge him forward.

“I didn’t team up with him,” Marco sulked.

“I didn’t say you did," Jake replied.

“I still haven’t changed my stance.”

“I didn’t say you have.” Jake pushed into the woods bordering the park. The forest and the park were all part of National Park land.

“Where are we going?” Marco demanded, nearly tripping over a rock.

“Jake didn’t tell you?” asked Cassie.

“I couldn’t understand his stupid made-up codephrases,” Marco grumbled. “I’m surprised I came to the right place.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “We're going to see Ax," he explained. "Cassie and I have been talking to him the last couple days. You know, about what he wants to do."

“Uh-oh,” Marco said, stumbling over a root. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“Well…” said Jake, “probably not. Ax wants to go home.”

“Home?” said Rachel.

“To the Andalite homeworld,” said Cassie.

“Oh, great,” said Marco. “We’ll just hop on over to the Jump City Amtrack hub and send him to another _planet_! Can’t be that far, right?”

“Ax says it’s about eighty-two light years,” Jake confirmed.

“Light travels about one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per a second,” Marco said. “Times sixty seconds per minute. Times sixty minutes per hour. Times twenty-four hours per day. Times three hundred sixty-five days per year. That’s one light year. Times eighty-two years.”

Rachel laughed. “Since when do you stay awake in science class?”

“We tried to figure it out in miles,” Jake admitted. “But none of our calculators would go that high.”

“I return to my brilliant Amtrack joke,” said Marco. “Don’t think airlines fly out there, either. And unless you want to ask a favor of NASA or JLA…”

“Uh-huh,” Jake said, nodding. “I know. That’s why we’ll have to steal a Yeerk spaceship.”

Marco laughed, but Rachel just raised an eyebrow and watched her cousin curiously. Cassie pointed ahead and the blue fur visible between distant branches. “There he is,” she said.

Marco scrambled after them into the clearing where Ax and Tobias were waiting for them. Guiltily, Tobias dropped the mouse corpse he’d been tearing up. They politely pretended not to notice. “Tobias, are we sure that no one’s around?” Jake asked.

<Yeah, I was just up there. No one around for miles.>

“Excuse me, but how come I was the only one laughing at Jake’s hilarious joke?" Marco interrupted.

“I wasn’t joking, Marco,” Jake said.

Marco swallowed. “I was afraid of that.”

<You are afraid?> Ax asked curiously.

“Someone who looks like Jake,” Marco said, gesturing angrily to his friend, “but couldn’t _possibly_ be because my good friend Jake, because Jake couldn’t _possibly_ be this insane--”

“Marco, in our current situation, that joke is really not--”

“-- suggested that we should steal a _Yeerk spaceship_ just to bus you home.”

Ax regarded them carefully. Finally, he answered. <You think it will be dangerous?>

"Dangerous?" Marco laughed bitterly. "No, jumping off a ten-story building is _dangerous_. Sticking your tongue in an electrical socket is _dangerous_ \-- not to mention painful. But stealing a Yeerk ship is _beyond dangerous_.”

<The higher the danger, the higher the honor,> Ax said. <Is this not true?>

Marco gave Rachel a sidelong look. "I think we've found your future husband."

"It may be honorable to try and get a Yeerk ship, Ax," Jake said, "but honor isn't our most important goal."

Ax’s main eyes widened, and his stalk eyes stretched up to their maximum height, appearing surprised. <What else do you fight for, if not honor?>

“Survival, for one,” Marco muttered.

"Look, we're trying to do whatever we can to hurt the Yeerks,” Jake said. “But we're also trying to stay alive. We're all there is. I mean, no one else even knows there is a Yeerk invasion. So if something happens to us…" He let it hang.

<l did not mean to offend,> Ax said. <You are right, of course. You are alone. If you fail, all is lost.>

"So the question is whether this is something we can do without getting killed," Jake said.

"Yeah, we're mostly against the idea of getting killed," Marco added. He crossed his arms stubbornly. "So how are we supposed to grab a Yeerk ship? They're up in orbit. We're down here. It's not like we can call them up and ask them to come down."

<Yes, we can do that,> Ax said.

"What?"

<We can call them.>

"Right."

<I can create a Yeerk distress beacon. They will send a ship to investigate.>

"You mean like, 'Hello? Hello? Is this Visser Three? Could you send a ship down to pick me up?'" Marco joked, making a phone shape with his pinkie and his thumb.

He was met by silence.

"Um, excuse me?" he said, trying again. "Personally, I have had plenty of Visser Three in my life. I don't need to call him up on the _phone_."

<It will not involve that… that foul beast,> Ax said. <It will be a minor matter. They will hear a distress beacon and send a Bug fighter to investigate.>

"There is always at least one Hork-Bajir and one Taxxon aboard each Bug fighter," Marco pointed out. "Anytime you start playing with Hork-Bajirs, it's not a minor thing."

<Do you fear them?> Ax demanded, turning eyes on Marco.

Marco snorted. "You better believe I fear them."

<Fear is unworthy of a warrior.>

As much as Marco wanted out of the hero game, he’d had it up to his nose with people telling him what he should be doing and how he should be feeling about it, and he was ready to hurt someone over it. And Marco didn’t hurt people the same way Rachel hurt people.

"How many times have you fought Hork-Bajir? Or any other Controller?" he demanded icily.

Ax’s stalk eyes drooped, and he pawed the ground with one hoof. <Never,> he admitted.

Marco nodded. “I thought so. So let me tell you something, Ax. It's scary. It's so scary that sometimes you wish you could just go ahead and die because it's easier than dealing with the terror.” He glanced around and the fallen faces of his friends confirmed that they wouldn’t argue this point.

Tobias, however, fluttered to Ax’s shoulder. <If you get a Yeerk ship, can you get back to the Andalite homeworld?> he asked.

Ax pawed the ground again, resolutely not looking in Marco’s direction. <Yes. I hope so.>

<And if you make it, can you do anything to hurry your people up? To get them back here quicker?>

<I am young. Like you. But I am the brother of Prince Elfangor,> said Ax. <My people will listen to me. I… I know that they will come, either way. But yes, perhaps if I can return and tell them how desperate your situation is…>

Jake took a deep breath. "Okay. Time for a vote,” he said, and Marco groaned loudly.

“I’m all for it!” said Rachel.

Cassie nodded. “I think it would be a good idea to get Ax back home. We’d want someone to do that for us.”

<And we owe it to Elfangor,> said Tobias, <if not to Ax.>

Jake looked to his best friend. “Marco?”

Marco glanced at the Andalite. Something was pulling at his stomach. “You really think you can get them here faster?”

<Your situation is much more dire than my people believe,> he answered.

Marco sighed. “Fine. Alright. I’m in. It’s not like I could outvote these three anyway.”


	3. Chapter 3

“What do you think?” Starfire asked, holding up a dress and turning to her friend.

Raven glanced out over the top of the book she’d just bought. “Pink.”

Starfire frowned. “I do not think that ‘pink’ is an opinion.”

Someone tapped on her shoulder, and Starfire turned to face a saleswoman. Raven stopped leaning on the display shelf and put her book away in her bag. “Excuse me,” said the saleswoman. “I don’t mean to be rude, but, ah, I was wondering if you could help?”

Starfire and Raven exchanged glances. “Help?” Starfire repeated.

The saleswoman frowned and pointed toward the entrance. “Some children in the food court are causing a commotion outside. I know that’s not really the sort of work you do, but it’s scaring away customers and security hasn’t shown up yet.”

Starfire smiled brightly and handed over the dress. “That is not a problem! We can take care of it!”

“We can?” said Raven, but Starfire pulled her away toward the entrance.

Out in the food court, an attractive young teen with medium brown skin and a mop of curly brown hair snatched pizza off someone’s plate and shoved it in his face. “Reminds me of when you first came to Earth,” said Raven, and Starfire blushed brightly before flying over to the boy.

Starfire grabbed his wrist just as he was about to shove a half-eaten cinnamon bun into his mouth. “Please stop! You are causing a--!”

“LET GO OF ME!” he cried in horror, wrenching his wrist from her grip.

Stunned, Starfire let him go. <This boy looks familiar,> Phyzzon hummed in the back of her mind.

“You need to leave,” said Raven. “You’re causing a scene, and technically you’re stealing.” The boy looked appropriately cowed but he remained afraid and distrustful of Starfire. Raven glanced at her. “Normally, they give me that look. Do you know this kid?”

Starfire dropped to the floor as two boys ran up. “I’m sorry!” a tall white boy quickly apologized. A short Latino boy started helping the first child to his feet, his bag getting knocked out of his hands in the process, and whispering something to him. “My cousin is, uh, is not from around here.”

Phyzzon peered carefully at the third child. “Are you all related?” he asked.

“Uh, no? Wh--?” Marco’s eyes suddenly widened, and he tensed. “Uh, I mean--”

“Ah,” said Raven. She walked away and began ensuring the encroaching security guards that everything was handled.

“Shut up,” Phyzzon hissed at the two boys fumbling over excuses. “It is as though you _want_ the Earth to be conquered. Do you want the Earth to be conquered?” He bent over and picked up the dropped bag, raised an eyebrow at the Radio Shack logo, and glanced inside all to Ax’s horror.

“No… ma’am?” Jake guessed.

“Then act wisely and remove yourselves from the premises immediately.” He shoved the bag at the Andalite.

Ax scowled. “This is another filthy attempt to sabotage--!”

Phyzzon shoved the bag at Marco when Ax refused to take it. Marco quickly grabbed it. “Yes, because pulling your idiotic grebnacks out of the ocean and now coming to prevent you from exposing yourselves while I was on break from being dragged back and forth across Jump City by Red X is _exactly_ how I plan to make your rebellion fail,” he snarled.

Starfire glowed slightly green. She jabbed a finger toward the door. “Out,” she said loud enough for the whole food court to hear. “And think about what you have done before you make return!”

The boys ducked their heads, grabbed Ax, and made a beeline for the door. They continued on away from the mall. “We need to find somewhere to hide and morph,” said Jake. “I do not want to wait at the bus stop with people who saw that.”

“You should look in that bag,” said Ax. “Luh-ook Ook Ka--”

“What?” Marco demanded, releasing Ax to look in their shopping bag. “Why? What am I looking for?”

“I am certain that it stole something.”

Marco stopped dead in his tracks and glared at Ax. “Really? You’re gonna mall cop the girl that just saved our asses _twice_?”

“No, I am going to mawl-caaaaahpuh mall cop Phyzzon 35555iiiive,” Ax insisted. “If that’s even its real name.”

Jake sighed and said, “Ax, don’t you think maybe you should--?”

“Hey, you’re right,” Marco said, digging into the bag. “Something is different.”

“What?” Jake demanded.

Marco lifted out a small square object, mostly purple with silver trim. It looked kind of like a cell phone. “Any idea what this is?”

Ax’s eyes went wide. “That… I believe that is a custom model of a Tamaranean long distance communicator.”

Jake took it from Marco and looked it over curiously. “What, you mean she calls home on this thing?”

“Probably,” Ax said, looking away.

“Why would she drop her phone in our bag?”

Marco glared at Ax. “Ax, does this thing have a z-space whatever?”

Silence.

“Ax!”

Ax winced. “Tamaranean technology is widely considered--”

“Oh shut up,” Marco snarled. He shoved the bag at Ax. “Yes or no? Did she just stop you from exposing us in the food court, look in our bag, figure out what we were doing, and hand us the missing part, all right under Controller noses without anyone noticing, _even us_?”

“Yes,” Ax whispered.

Marco spun to Jake and made a noise of frustration. Jake was rubbing his temple. “Awesome,” Jake said. “Then, you can start on it as soon as you get back to the meadow.”


	4. Chapter 4

"Marco? What's the problem?"

Marco’s head snapped up. He glanced at his friend. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Jake smiled a little. "I mean, you haven't said a single mean-yet-funny thing the whole way. That's not you."

Marco laughed. Then, he said, “Yeah, uh, look Jake… This has gotta be my last time.”

Jake’s face fell. “What?”

“You know that space we all took?” he said. “It… Well, it felt really good. It was good knowing I wasn’t going to be pulled into something stupid. That my dad wasn’t going to be waiting up all night just to watch me not come home.”

Jake thought about that. “I guess I can see your point.”

“I’m good playing defence,” Marco continued. “I can use this power for something. But not _this_ Jake. No more of this.”

Jake nodded. “Yeah.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry, and I’m here for Ax this time, but you know that this is risky and stupid, and I can’t put my life on the line when it’s all my dad is holding on to,” Marco rambled.

Jake clapped a hand on Marco’s shoulder. “Yeah, you’re right. You’ve done more than enough.” He smiled at his friend. “What are you doing Sunday?” he asked.

Marco shrugged. “I don't know. Some Sundays we go to my mom's grave. Leave flowers and all. But this is the two-year thing," he said. "I don't know, man."

Jake nodded again.

"But I'll tell you one thing, Jake," he said. "A year from now I don't want my dad going to leave flowers at two graves."

\-- --

<Stay in morph,> Jake snapped. <Don't let them know we're human.>

<Let's charge them!> Rachel yelled.

<No! You can't even climb up that rock face. Don't be stupid!>

Cassie called Tobias. <Tobias! You can get away!>

<I don't think so,> he said. <No headwind and my feathers are still coming in. They'd fry me before I got clear.>

<What are we going to do?> Cassie wailed.

<There has to be a way out! There has to be!> Rachel yelled.

<Not this time,> Marco said grimly. And that was it. The one last risk. The sacrifice he’d tried to avoid. He’d let his father down.

\-- --

<This is not looking good,> Marco said, mostly to kill the silence.

<No. It isn't. But we're not dead yet,> Jake answered.

<Yet. Why doesn't that make me happy?> Marco looked around at the others, all crammed into a cage on the Blade ship. It felt like a coffin.

“Could be worse.”

They hadn’t even noticed the uniformed figure caged near by. In Jump City, you just sort of got used to seeing (and ignoring) costumes. The guy was wearing a black bodysuit and black cape with a full black mask. He had a grey belt and gray gloves, and a skull design on his mask. There were red Xs across the mask, his chest, and the backs and palms of his hands. The edges of his gloves and cape were ragged, though they seemed to be that way on purpose.

<Don’t talk to him,> Jake ordered.

“Hey,” he said, snapping his fingers at them. “Look at me.”

<He’s certainly got a bunch of Xs,> said Marco. <Which are red.>

<So?> Rachel demanded.

<So maybe he’s that Red X guy the Titans keep talking about?> he guessed. <I don’t know. I was just noticing.>

“Will you please turn the heck around?”

<’Heck’?> Rachel quoted. <We’re all trapped on an alien spacecraft that wants to do us harm, and he goes for ‘heck’? Has he never cussed before? What a shitty villain.>

A Hork-Bajir Controller kicked X’s cage, and he dodged backward. “You talk us, not talk Andalite.”

Red X glared at the controller.

“Not talk now? Seem want to. Who send?”

Red X looked away. The controller shrugged and moved on. Cassie watched him carefully. <How come he’s so eager to talk to us, but isn’t even doing the villainous banter thing with them?> she wondered.

<Same reason we don’t want to talk to them,> said Marco. <It risks giving something away.>

<Probably gambling that he can manipulate the Andalites into posing a distraction for him,> Tobias guessed.

<Maybe we should just demorph,> Cassie said. <Maybe if they realize we aren't Andalites, they'll let us go.>

<We should stay in animal morph,> Jake said. <I mean, the thing is, if Visser Three learns we are human, he may go after our families next. He may figure we told them something.>

<Prince Jake is right,> Ax said. <The Yeerks will not want to take any chances that other humans know of them.>

The controller that had taunted Red X walked forward and did something with a control panel nearby. Soon, a huge window opened up on the wall in front of them. The wall just sort of contracted in on itself, like the steel was alive. Red X leaned forward in his own cage, but he wasn’t looking at the window. He was looking at the wall. “Is it alive?” he wondered.

Ax glanced at him with one eye, then looked away. Jake looked between them, then asked, privately, <Ax?>

<I strongly suspect this ship is indeed alive,> he admitted. <I do not know from whom they harvested the technology.>

<Well, as _lively_ as this topic is, > Marco said, causing Rachel to groan, <what the hell am I seeing out that window?>

<That would be the Yeerk Mothership,> Ax explained. In view of the window was what looked like an enormous three-legged insect with a spherical main body. At what might be called the bottom of the sphere, a section appeared to be cut away, letting free a mass of weird, mismatched tentacle-like structures and giving the ship an almost jellyfish-like appearance, aside from the legs. Each tendril had to be at least a quarter mile long. Each leg was bent up and back down, like a spider’s leg. <They wanted us to see this and despair.>

“What is that?” asked Red X, but Ax only glanced at him again.

<The tendrils hanging down below the belly are weapons and sensors and energy collectors,> he continued to explain to the Animorphs privately. <That is also where the shipboard Kandrona is. The Yeerks must bathe in the Yeerk pool every three days and absorb Kandrona rays. There must be one on the planet below, too.>

<Yeah. We know,> Marco said. <Your brother told us. For all the good it did us.>

“The Watchtower,” Red X whispered. Marco followed his gaze and saw something in the distance, past the Mothership and dozens of human-created satellites. It had a sort of round, squat base section, with wings off to either side, and two long, sharp points rising from the middle with a few hoop-like constructions rotating around those.

Justice League headquarters. They were right within sight of Justice League headquarters and not one hero was doing a goddamn thing.

Ax looked out at the looming Mothership as it took up more and more of their view. <It is worth noting that it is normally shielded and invisible. We would not be able to see it, and human technology would not be able to detect it.>

The Blade ship turned slightly, probably to make a proper entrance into the Mothership, and they were able to see the Earth, hanging in dark space like a Christmas ornament.

<I've never been in space before,> Cassie said as though that wasn't obvious. <I always wished I could. I always wanted to see Earth, all in one piece like that.>

<It is a lovely planet,> Ax said gently. <Not so different from mine. Except that we have less ocean and more grassland. I… I am sorry I brought you all to this. This is my fault.>

<Ax, you're only here because your people wanted to protect us,> Cassie said. <Your brother and a lot of Andalites died trying to save us. Nothing is your fault.>

<One too many missions> Marco muttered. <This was going to be my last one. Now… well, it will still be my last one.>

<They were all your last one,> Rachel reminded him. But Jake’s tiger tail brushed against Marco’s gorilla ankle, and Marco smiled slightly. As much as a gorilla could slightly smile.

An opening on the Mothership appeared, smoothly, just the same way the window had, like a widening mouth. The Blade ship smoothly slid inside, bathed in deep red light. The mouth closed, the Blade ship landed, and clouds of gas were spat out around the ship. As the window finally began to close, the Animorphs could see crewman of various species and uniforms hurrying up to the ship.

<Ax?> Jake asked. <What's our morph time?>

<You have been in morph for forty percent of allowable time,> Ax replied.

Marco did the math. <So we've used up forty-eight minutes. Leaving what, seventy-two minutes?>

<Yeah,> Tobias confirmed. <Not a lot of time for you guys. Maybe Rachel is right. Maybe we should just go out in a blaze of glory. Attack as soon as they open the door. At least we can let them know we were here.>

Jake extended his claws as if he were thinking about using them. He glanced at where the door had once been, like he was measuring the distance. The tiger in him told him that he needed out now. <No,> he said, relaxing again. <We have to have hope.>

Cassie sidled up next to him and nuzzled him with her wolf's muzzle, and Marco felt a pang of jealousy. <We gave them a pretty good fight, didn't we?> Marco asked, a little desperately. <Our little circus? We did some damage to them.>

<Yes, we did,> Rachel agreed.

Ax shifted in what might have been a nervous manner. <Do… Do humans fear death?>

<Yes. We're not crazy about death,> Marco answered. <How about Andalites?>

<We're also not crazy about it.>

Without warning, a huge doorway stretched open again, where the window had been. They could see before them a collection of Hork-Bajir in red uniforms. There were also a handful of Hork-Bajir in gold uniforms and a smattering of Taxxons. <This is strange,> said Ax. <I can gather from the controllers on this ship that red is the color of Visser Three’s troops, which means that gold is the color of the troops of the Visser who oversees this Mothership.>

<They have their own armies?> Tobias asked.

<Yes. Sort of. But if gold is the color of this other Visser, why are there not more present?>

Several Hork-Bajir and Taxxon-Controllers approached the cages, and their doors were swung wide open. “Out,” a Hork-Bajir Controller ordered, pointing. “Walk.”

Obediently, the Animorphs approached the opening, where a long ramp was sliding down to meet the platform below. Though it looked metal, it somehow reminded Marco of an extending tongue. He shivered. Red X was held at a careful distance from them.

Visser Three walked around into view, seemingly exiting the ship from another area. <How long does she expect us to wait?> he demanded of a Taxxon-Controller. The Taxxon screeched something at him as it backed up out of range of his tail.

A moment later, another door at the end of the bay opened up and something gelatinous spilled out. No, not gel. It was more like a bag of water. It reminded Marco of the seemingly endless nightmares, based on all-too-real experiences, of his stomach and intestines sliding out of an open gash in his belly. It must have given his friends similar images, because most of them shivered as well. Ax just stared at it, wide-eyed. <What is this?> he wondered. <What are they doing?>

<Ax-man, if you don’t know, we sure as hell don’t,> Marco quipped.

Red X leaned forward and watched with interest as the wobbling water gut grew and grew, filling up more and more of the bay. To their shock, there were Taxxons inside, as well as other creatures. <Prince Jake, I see Leerans,> Ax warned. <If we get too close to them, they will know all our secrets.>

<Fantastic,> Jake drawled. He didn’t even bother telling Ax not to call him prince. It didn’t seem important at the moment. <Okay, if they bring us near them, then we fight. Until then, just-->

<Are those mermaids?> Rachel interrupted.

Peering into the water, they were able to see a few uniformed humans with varying degrees of aquatic features. Some were as human-looking as Aqualad had been. A couple had tails.

“Atlantis,” Red X breathed. “They have Atlantis.” He sounded worried, and a Hork-Bajir Controller laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

“We have all of it soon,” the controller told him.

<I thought Atlantis was a secret,> said Cassie. <How does he know about it?>

<He could be a Controller meant to gain our trust,> said Marco.

<Or he’s Atlantean,> said Tobias. <That’s a pretty thorough costume. He could be anyone underneath.> The water-gut wobbled as it ceased expansion, seemingly waiting patiently as more and more Taxxons, Leerans, Atlanteans, and other aquatic controllers filed in.

<Ax, which ones are Leerans? How close is too close?> Jake asked.

<Yellow. Tentacles. Webbed feet. A few of your yards,> he answered, intently focused on the massive bubble of water.

<What are you thinking?> Marco asked.

<Gonna do something stupid.> Then, in private thoughtspeak that included their fellow prisoner, Jake said, <Human. Information will be repaid for information. The yellow creatures are called Leerans. Do not get within a few yards of them or any secrets you possess will be revealed.>

Red X’s eyes narrowed as he peered around at was maybe a half dozen Leerans, accessing the bay’s controls through the gelatinous surface. He nodded almost imperceptibly.

<You forgot to say ‘a few of your yards,’> Rachel reminded him privately, and Jake winced.

A new figure was swimming up, a bright and glittering mermaid. She had a golden fish tail with scales that climbed all the way to her chest and even spotted her arms, shoulders, cheeks, chin, and brow. She had wholly black eyes, like Aqualad, and long golden brown ringlets which were braided back from her face into a high ponytail. Her dark olive-brown human skin was covered in golden swirls which pulsed with moving lights. And she looked strangely familiar.

<This must be Visser One,> said Ax. <It was said that she had an aquatic form, but Leeran was presumed. Almost all of these species are amphibious. This new design must have been incorporated just for her.>

As Visser Three began bragging to her about his accomplishment in capturing the Andalite Bandits and a new hero (to which Red X snorted derisively), Marco huffed out a gorilla sigh. <Of all the times and ways to die,> he said privately to Jake, <I have to be killed _today_ by a mermaid that looks like my _mother_. >

Jake said nothing. He was staring carefully.

Visser One’s reply came over some kind of loudspeaker. “I see only one Andalite, Visser Three, and it is practically an infant.” An insult to which both Visser Three and Ax stiffened. "Are we certain you did not simply raid a zoo?"

Marco sat down. Plop. Just fell on his butt. His friends looked at him curiously.

<Marco, get up! Keep it together,> Jake warned privately.

<Jake, man, that’s her voice. That’s her voice. I don’t…>

<Marco, don’t do anything. Don’t do anything. Do you hear me?>

<Jake, my mom is a mermaid. My mom is a mermaid in space. She's a space mermaid.>

<Marco? That is _not_ your mother. _Not_ anymore. That is _not_ her. >

<Why, Visser One,> said Visser Three, <you seem to have frightened the humanoid one.>

“It’s called a gorilla,” said Visser One over the intercom. Marco found himself watching her mouth move, just barely out of sync with the audio. “If you are going to be in charge of Earth, Visser Three, you should at least learn something about the planet.”

<And take an Earthling body as you did?> Visser Three taunted. <I see how that worked out for you. Though perhaps your failed experimentation is more to blame than the selection.>

Marco snarled. <She _experimented_ on my _mother_?! >

<Marco, don’t do anything suspicious,> Jake warned. <Stand up.>

Marco stood up, but this time he wasn’t noticed. “You think that this is a loss?” Visser One asked, spreading her arms to indicate her semi-aquatic spacecraft. There was semi-transparent gold webbing between her fingers. She grinned viciously, revealing rows of shark-like teeth. “Look at the Andalite. I strike fear in the hearts of our enemy in a way that your host never could.”

Red X glanced at Ax and saw that he was, in fact, carefully backing up. When a Hork-Bajir Controller next to him saw this, it shoved him with a clawed hand, signalling him to stop. Ax was trembling.

“I took a human host and learned about my target, a class five planet that you couldn’t have found with a _map_ ,” Visser One snarled. “And because of that I was able to begin the invasion that you have now endangered with your criminal incompetence!”

<Wow, _okay_ , these two do _not_ like each other, > said Rachel. Marco looked over at her curiously, and it struck him: Rachel didn’t recognize her. Only Jake had ever met his mother! That was why Jake had kept their conversation private!

<You would like to provoke me, Visser One,> said Visser Three. <But the fact is that I destroyed the Andalite force. I shot down their Dome ship. I killed Prince Elfangor myself and heard his dying screams. And now I have eliminated this last, pathetic rabble of Andalites.>

Another razor-sharp shark smile, and Marco was so mad it made him sick. How dare they do that to his mother! How dare they rearrange her very flesh against her will! He’d kill them! He’d tear them apart! "You want to be Visser One?” she taunted with his mother's voice. “You think you can take my title? We shall see. The Council of Thirteen does not like Vissers who make mistakes. And you have made mistakes. Be careful of your own ambition.” She turned to a Taxxon nearby. “Please create an access tunnel to prisoner storage. We mustn’t force Visser Three to swim.”

<Andalites don’t swim,> said Visser Three, and suddenly Ax’s behavior made a lot more sense.

“Really?” Visser One laughed. The high, bubbling, beautiful laugh of Marco’s mother. “I must have forgotten.” She dashed away and disappeared into the darkness of the water. Surprisingly, all the Leerans went with her. After a moment, a tunnel began to form through the water, allowing non-swimmers to pass through.


	5. Chapter 5

The tips of Rachel’s elephant ears brushed the wobbling, organic surface of the underwater tunnel as the Animorphs were marched through the ship. Luckily, they saw no more Leerans. Rachel wiggled her ears again, but this did nothing to make her more comfortable. <Oh man,> she groaned. <This is super weird and gross.>

<Well someone should have gotten a more reasonable battle morph, I guess,> Marco snickered.

<Please be careful,> Ax whined. <Stolen technology may not be reliable.> He was shaking so hard he could barely walk. The controllers had definitely noticed Ax’s claustrophobia. They were laughing to themselves, and one of the Hork-Bajir Controllers kept shoving Ax to force him to walk faster and occasionally purposefully scraped the gelatinous walls with their elbow blade. It seemed that the walls could immediately heal from any cut, only a few droplets of water escaping each time the blade cut it. But it was still absolute hell on Ax’s nerves, and the others weren’t feeling a lot better. It was one thing to go through the underwater passage at Gardens Aquarium, but this was ridiculous.

The tunnel finally ended at a row of pods, each accessible by a platform across more water. Through water above them, they could see a long chimney that seemed to go up and up and up until darkness hid the remainder. It appeared to be the same below. A lot of the ship, in fact, seemed to be underlit unless and until a walkable tunnel was formed or certain swimmers passed through. The Atlantean- and Taxxon-Controllers both seemed content to work in the dark.

There were six of the pods. One was just barely man-sized. Five were just big enough to fit Ax. <I can’t fit in--> Rachel started, but then another, much larger pod, slid down from above. The wall stretched as the pod slid toward them, then made a sort of BLORP noise as the pod popped through with a small splash, causing Ax to jump nervously. <Oh,> she said as the pod docked and another, wider, platform extended out to reach it and an opening appeared in the side.

A Hork-Bajir Controller jabbed her in the ass. “Move!”

<OW! RUDE!> Rachel lurched forward and crammed herself into the pod. It closed around her. <Awe, man! I can’t turn around in this thing!>

Red X was shoved toward the smallest pod, where he turned and stood with his arms crossed as it closed in around him. Cassie, Jake, Marco, and Tobias were lead to the Andalite-sized pods. Ax, however, had to be forced at gunpoint. When the pod closed down around him, he attempted to strike it with his blade, which only resulted in a metallic clang and searing pain up the length of his tail. They could see through narrow windows as the controllers quickly retreated and the platforms retracted. Well, most of them could. Rachel probably couldn’t. Soon after, water came rushing down around them.

Marco collapsed wearily, letting his gorilla head thump against the wall in front of him.

<Now do we demorph?> asked Rachel.

<I… I don’t know,> Jake said. <Ax, what’s our time look like?>

Ax didn’t answer.

<Ax?> Tobias asked. <Hey, Ax? Ax, are you okay?!>

<Ax, buddy? I need you to take a deep breath… or whatever Andalites do… and calm down,> Jake said. <I know this is scary, but they’re just trying to intimidate you. They want Andalite hosts, so they’re not going to let anything hurt you.>

For a moment, Marco thought Ax wasn’t ever going to answer. But finally, they heard, <You have only thirty percent of your time left.>

<Thirty-six minutes,> Marco said.

<Thirty-six minutes, and I'll spend the rest of my life as an elephant,> Rachel said. <Not that the 'rest of my life' is likely to be much time.>

<We can’t escape,> said Cassie. <You heard Ax’s tail clang.>

<The fact that no water is leaking in means bug morphs won’t help,> Marco added.

<Even if we could get out, I can’t morph to swim,> Tobias reminded them.

<We shouldn’t have even brought you,> Rachel lamented. <You can barely even fly.>

<Thanks. I totally forgot about that.>

<It’s too late to worry about things we could have done,> said Cassie. <We need to figure out a way forward. Jake, what’s the vote?>

<Honestly?> There was a long pause. Way too long. <Honestly, I think the choices we’re looking at are… To give them morph-capable hosts with the hope that we’ll get a chance for freedom down the line, to give them animal hosts with the chance to fight them further down the line but to never be human again, or… or to not give them hosts. Make sure they never find out who we really are.>

No one said anything. It was fairly obvious what the tactical decision was. But no one wanted to be the one to choose it.

<AAAAAAAH!> Rachel suddenly screamed.

Marco leapt to his feet. <What? What’s happening?!>

<Not water-tight!> Rachel answered him, panicked. <It’s leaking! A lot! I don’t think they made these for elephants!>

Suddenly, Ax started screaming, too. <I do not think it is your weight that is causing this!>

<AAAAH!> Tobias shouted. <It’s mine, too!>

<Oh, god!> Cassie shouted. <What is this?! Why are they letting water in?!>

<You were wrong, Prince Jake!> Ax said, clearly panicked. <I do not think Visser One wants Visser Three to successfully capture Andalite hosts!>

<SHIT!> Jake cried suddenly. <Okay, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, demorph and morph trout. Ax, morph hammerhead. Tobias, do your best to keep above water. Try spreading your wings. Hopeful-->

<AAAAGH!> Marco shouted when he was suddenly hit by falling water. He looked up to see that a seam had opened around the top of his pod. He pushed on it, but it refused to open further, even with his gorilla strength.

<Demorph!> Jake reminded him. <We’ll have to hope Visser Three figures it out! Just morph!>

Marco concentrated. Not gorilla. Not gorilla. Not gorilla not gorilla not gorilla…

His mother. His own mother was trying to drown him. His own half-fish mother was being forced to drown him by a mind-controlling space slug inside a giant jellyfish spaceship in outer space and his father would never know. Not even when the Yeerks eventually took over the planet and took his father as a host, because even _they_ thought Marco was a goddamn Andalite.

His mother. Water was pouring in around him, and he remembered swimming with her. They'd started when he was little. Real little. His father had been amazed. “I thought he’d need more instruction!” he’d cried.

“He gets it from his mother,” she’d bragged. “Papá says I was a natural swimmer as a baby.” She’d lifted little Marco, laughing happily, high into the air. “He’ll be an Olympian some day!”

He felt the last bit of gorilla flesh melting away as the water edged up to his nose. He spread his arms and bounced off his toes, trying to keep his head above water. It shouldn’t be a problem, but the same images came flooding back. The imagination that had kept him out of the water for two years.

A storm. A wrecked boat. His mother, the expert swimmer, unable to surface in the turbulent waves and churning stormwater. Water filling her nose, her mouth, her lungs. Her muscles growing weary. Slowly, slowly losing consciousness as her lungs burned with desperation and her mind spun, starved of air.

He heard thumping. He opened his eyes. Through the water and the window, he could see a skull staring back at him. Death. His mother was dead. He was dead. Everyone was going to die here, under the waters of the storm.

It was at that point that he passed out.


	6. Chapter 6

Marco.

Marco.

Marco, wake up.

“MARCO!”

Marco gasped awake. His lungs were burning. There was a skull in front of him. “Dead?” he gasped.

“Not yet,” Red X laughed, sounding relieved. “You’re half-morphed. You need to demorph all the way. Hurry!”

“What?” He felt like he was choking, but there wasn’t any water anymore. He didn’t understand what he was choking on. “Who? Why?”

Red X pulled his mask off, revealing a more familiar face (under another, smaller domino mask). “Robin?!” Cassie cried.

“You’re a bit fishy,” Robin continued, patient but urgent and definitely worried. “You need to become human. Remember what you look like?” Marco nodded weakly, pathetically. “Okay, good. Close your eyes and focus on that. Focus!”

“I can’t believe you have a mask under your mask.”

“Not now, Rachel.”

“It’s called being prepared.”

Marco was finally able to take a breath that didn’t feel like it was killing him. He took a few more. Finally, he opened his eyes. “Am I good now?”

Robin smiled brightly. “Perfect,” he said, offering Marco a hand up.

Marco allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and looked around. They were gathered, wet and shivering (Tobias looked particularly miserable.) inside what appeared to be a long steel tube. “What is this?” he asked.

<Access tunnel for non-swimming Controllers,> Ax said. <... I think.>

“We came in through the wall,” Rachel said, pointing at a space on the wall of the tube that looked like all the other spaces on the wall of the tube. “But how do we leave?”

Robin shook out his Red X mask. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “I was lucky to find _this_ so easily.” He pulled the mask back on.

<How many identities do you have?> Tobias wondered.

“It was for a mission,” he said. He began running his hands along the wall, looking for something.

“Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire all mentioned looking for Red X,” said Jake.

“It was a complicated mission,” he muttered.

“Your team just gets more and more trustworthy every time we meet you,” Rachel said, laughing a bit cruelly.

“Hey, I just saved your butts from a watery grave,” ~~Robin~~ Red X snapped.

“Our ‘butts,’” Rachel quoted. “Man, I shoulda realized back on the ship when you said ‘heck.’”

Red X sighed exasperatedly and slumped in defeat. “Just help me find an access panel, please? Maybe we can find some data or a map or something.”

“Hello.”

“AH!” Red X fell backward in surprise, the Animorphs spun, and Ax raised his tail high. Standing there was what appeared to be the most average human being ever. And not “TV” average, but statistical average: the figure was completely androgynous with a “medium” brown skin that somehow had hints of both warm and cool tones, had “medium” brown hair that was neither thick nor thin and exhibited multiple textures and had a mixture of ashen and rufous tones, had hazel eyes that mixed all possible colors, had facial features that were attractive but not beautiful, and wore a gold Yeerk Empire uniform. Even the voice gave no identifiers despite being pleasant enough to hear. “What are you?” Red X demanded.

“I am the information protocol hologram. You asked for an access panel. There are no access panels in the organic corridors.”

“Uh… right.” Red X looked around. “Can you see us?”

The hologram tilted its head. “I am the information protocol hologram.”

“Uh-huh.” He glanced at the Animorphs. Jake nodded and told Rachel, Cassie, and Marco to change back into battle morph. “So… If I wanted to exit the ship, how would I do that?”

“I’m sorry, but Visser Three has denied all leave from this vessel until the prisoners have been located.”

“Really? Where do they think the prisoners are?”

“Uncertain.”

Red X nodded. “Okay, great. Well, that’s okay. I can wait. But after they’ve found the prisoners, I’ll still need off this… vessel.”

The hologram stared blankly back at him.

“How do I do that?” Red X tried. Suddenly, the statistically average human disappeared and a map appeared. He groaned. “Okay, I have no idea what this means.”

Ax trotted over to his side and looked over the map. <I think perhaps-->

The map disappeared and an alarm sounded. “ANDALITE DETECTED. ANDALITE DETECTED.”

<Ax, did you say that publicly?> asked Jake, mostly tiger aside from having no fur.

<... Yes, Prince Jake,> Ax admitted.

“Prince?” asked Red X.

<It’s a long story,> Marco said, grabbing his arm and running. <Let’s get out of here!>

<Wrong way,> said Ax.

Marco grunted and turned and followed the fleeing Animorphs in the other direction.

“PREPARE FOR CONNECTION.”

<What does that mean?> Rachel demanded.

“CONNECTION IMMANENT. PLEASE MAKE WAY FOR CONNECTION.”

<I guess we’re about to find out!> said Jake.

Suddenly the floor erupted in front of them, so violently and abruptly that the metallic “skin” didn’t heal fast enough to prevent several gallons of water from bursting in. Supergirl was standing right in front of them, soaking wet and completely pissed off. “ _Whoever acquired my host is about to get their face caved in!_ ” she screamed.

The Animorphs exchanged glances. <Do you think an elephant stands a chance against a Kryptonian?> Rachel asked privately.

“No,” said Red X, and, misinterpreting the reply, Supergirl glared death at him. Which is to say that she used her heat vision. “AGH!” he shouted, barely ducking aside in time. Surprisingly, the space of wall she'd accidentally hit instead hardened under the heat, as opposed to burning away. “I wasn’t talking to you!” Red X shouted.

“Tell me who acquired her!” she snarled.

<Robin, say ‘Dropshaft’!> Ax commanded.

“What? Why?!”

“ _So I don’t have to waste all these good hosts!_ ” she screamed.

“I _still_ wasn't talking to you!” Red X shouted back.

<Because you're the only one who isn’t using thoughtspeak, so there is actually a chance that the ship computer will obey you!>

“Oh,” he hissed. Rachel screamed and almost backed up on him when Supergirl singed a line across her side. “Dropshaft!” Red X shouted. They all suddenly fell through the floor into the water. Well, not actually into the water. It was another air-filled gelatinous tunnel.

“You _turds_!” she screamed. She flew after them, diving into the tunnel.

<Is the cussing thing a hero thing?> Rachel wondered. <Do I have to stop cussing?>

“Ax! I’m pretty sure she can fly faster than we can fall!” Red X shouted as they tumbled at the speed of gravity past Taxxons and Leerans, hopefully too fast for the Leerans to glimpse anything good in their brains.

<Command: ‘Tiltshaft at level...’> Ax looked around. <12?> he guessed.

“I am so assured right now,” Red X groaned. “Tiltshaft level at 12!”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, roughly, they were pulled suddenly to the left. Falling through another gel-walled tunnel, exactly as they had just been doing, only the direction of gravity had changed. Supergirl blew right past them.

<Flyshaft to level 15.>

“Flyshaft to level 15!” And they were pulled up again into another suddenly manifesting tunnel. It lasted briefly before they stopped and the tunnel closed into a bubble, allowing them to stand.

Ax tucked his tail against his back. <Tiltshaft to Exit Bay,> he instructed.

“Tiltshaft to Exit Bay?” Red X repeated. The bubble burst out into a tunnel, and they were pulled sideways again. Seeing movement to his left, he turned and saw a blur of white and red in the watery distance. “I think she’s catching up,” he grumbled.

A moment later, they were ejected carelessly into a large bay filled with escape pods. Luckily, the elephant landed first. <Rachel, demorph!> Jake commanded.

<Way ahead of ya!> She was already shrinking as the seven of them ran for the nearest escape pod.

And that was when a familiar superpowered blond landed in front of them. Red X shouted in alarm and slid to a stop right in front of her. She raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said it was wrong to use that word?”

“Superstar!” he realized, relieved. “Oh thank-- NO WAIT! GET OUT!”

“Get out?" Phyzzon demanded. "I just tracked you back and forth across Jump City and into the Yeerk mothership in order to rescue your grebnacks from the single _stupidest_ plan I have ever seen, and you want me to--?”

SPLOOSH! Supergirl landed solidly a short distance away from them. Angrily, she raised an accusing finger. “You!” she snarled.

“Oh,” said Superstar, right before Supergirl slammed into them at rocket speed, throwing them against the opposing wall. Superstar shakily got to their feet and dodged just before Superstar could charge them again. “Go!” they yelled. “I can handle this!”

“But--!”

“Go!” Supergirl charged them again, and Superstar grabbed her by the arm and swung her into a row of escape pods, shattering them into a condition that could probably be described as “beyond all repair.”

Supergirl’s heat vision blasted up at them, and Superstar rained Starbolts down on her. Supergirl just glared in annoyance. “What? You’re not even Kryptonian! What the hell are you?!”

Superstar shrugged. “Cooler? Prettier? More talented?”

“I’ll kill you!” And suddenly she smashed into them, grabbed them by the throat, and threw them into the floor.

“Star!” Red X screamed, but a gorilla pulled him into an escape pod and slammed the door shut. She could hear him beating on the door, but mere seconds later the pod was slipping quietly out into space.

“I think…” Phyzzon hissed as Supergirl landed next to them. “I think that was a bit of an overreaction.”

“ _You!_ ” She punched them in the face. “ _Stole!_ ” She punched them again. “ _My!_ ” Again. “ _Host!_ ” Again.

Bones were definitely broken, but Phyzzon wasn’t new to symbiosis; he’d already redirected the pain signals to himself. “In my day,” he hissed. Then he spat. Starfire was not happy to see a tiny chip of tooth on the floor. “In my day, we knew how to share.”

That yanked her emergency brake. Supergirl stared at him, confused. “What?”

But that pause was all Starfire had needed to gather her thoughts. And her thoughts were this: **Kryptonians are solar-powered.** She flew forward and grabbed each super wrist as it flew at her. “Involuntary hosts are weak and unpredictable.”

Supergirl shot at them with heat vision, making Superstar groan. Angrily, Supergirl kept it up. “Shows what you know! My host is _perfect_! _Powerful!_ She’ll make me _Visser One_ one day! She’ll make me a _Councilor_! I can’t even get in her without locking her in a _Kryptonite_ cell! She’s unstoppable!”

“Until you use her energy all up on heat vision,” Superstar said, laughing.

“What?” Supergirl stopped and realized that Superstar was now radiating green energy. “ _What are you?!_ ” she demanded.

<Whatever she is,> said the real Kryptonian locked into a small recess of her own mind, <I hope she kills us.> And the host rebelled! She fired again, with all her might, giving everything she could to the energy-absorbing Superstar. She even managed to smile. <I hope she burns you all.>

By the time the Yeerk was able to force her to stop, there wasn’t any energy left to save. She collapsed weakly on the floor, barely able to hold herself up.

Superstar knelt down and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and kissed her on the forehead. “I am sorry, my friend.” Then, they picked her up and threw her through the wall into the surrounding water. “I pray X’hal will have mercy on you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so we took some liberties here. We wanted /someone/ to have /some/ kind of upperhand on the Kryptionian-Controllers. IIRC (this was written a while ago), mademoisellePlume helped find a single incident in comics canon where Starfire was able to absorb Kryptonian powers due to Kryptonians being solar powered and Starfire being UV-powered. (Her UV ties aren't canonical to the cartoon.) I might be remembering wrong because I can't find it right now. Anyway, that's the theory: that a light-powered being can't be fought with solar-powered energy beams. *shrug* (When it comes to Bruiser skills, they're both heavy-hitters, but the Kryptonian is stronger.)


	7. Chapter 7

Marco pushed open the escape pod, surprised to find all-black eyes blinking back at him. <Uh…>

“Are you all okay?” asked Aqualad, stepping back so they could climb out. Jake and Rachel had both demorphed for spacial reasons, but Marco had remained gorilla and Ax had remained demorphed “just in case.”

“Aqualad?” Red X asked, climbing out of the beached escape pod. He glanced at the water and saw a pair of dolphins gliding away. “Well, that explains how we were beached so easily.”

Aqualad glanced him over curiously. “Robin?” he guessed.

Robin pulled off the Red X mask again. “How could you tell?”

“You’re Robin-shaped and sound vaguely Robin-ish, and Starfire sent me a message to come rescue you and the Andalite Bandits.” Aqualad tilted his head curiously. “How many identities do you have?”

Robin sighed heavily. “It’s complicated,” he grumbled. He turned to help Rachel out as Marco climbed past him, gently pushing Aqualad aside. Marco then turned around to help Ax out while Tobias fluttered to Rachel’s shoulder.

“Can we please get out first before getting a hoof in the face?” Jake sulked.

Robin tossed the Red X mask aside. There honestly wasn’t any point to it by then. If Slade didn’t know about the ruse yet, he would soon. “Look, uh, Aqualad, I have to tell you something.”

Aqualad paused in helping pull Cassie out. “What’s that?” he asked, but they were interrupted when Starfire, bloody and bruised, fell on the sand next to them. “Starfire!”

They ran over to help her. Robin tried to pick her up, but she pushed him weakly away. “Do not,” said Phyzzon. “That hurts. I am barely containing the pain as it is. Let her get some sun.”

He stepped back but stayed ready to help when needed. “How did you get away from Supergirl?”

Phyzzon looked at him morosely. “You do not want the answer to that,” he said as the Animorphs made their way over and Marco began demorphing.

Robin frowned. “Phyzzon…”

“You mean _Supergirl_ did this?” Aqualad demanded. “Why?”

Robin turned to him, and Starfire collapsed, spreading out on her back, on the sand. Aside from the gore, she looked relaxed. “That’s what I was gonna tell you, Aqualad," Robin admitted. "See… There’s an alien invasion of earth happening. The Yeerk Empire.”

Aqualad just blinked back at him. “Yeerk Empire?” he repeated.

Robin nodded. “Yeah, Yeerks are slug-like creatures that take over the brain, take control of the host.”

Phyzzon raised an exhausted hand. “Yo.”

Robin pushed the hand back down, trying not to look amused. “Some of them are allies. Phyzzon 355 here is symbiotic with Starfire. They both have control. He’s helping us fight the Empire because he doesn’t approve of involuntary hosts. But the Yeerks already have taken Superman and Supergirl and possibly the other Kryptonians, and JLA is compromised.” He pointed up. “The Yeerk mothership is within line of sight of the Watchtower. That’s where we just escaped from.”

Aqualad scowled. “How do you tell who’s who?”

“Sometimes they drop hints,” Jake explained. “They’ll talk about the Sharing. They’ll try to recruit you or even be very insistent about getting you alone or showing you something secret. Sometimes hosts rebel and speak or twitch or convulse. They also have to return to the Yeerk Pool or an adequate source of Kandrona every three days, or they’ll die. But now that they know they’re known here, they’re hiding it more and more. It’s impossible to really tell for sure.” He turned suddenly when he heard Marco wheezing. “Are you okay?”

Marco waved him out. “I’m just having trouble getting back to my form again. It happens a lot.” He turned suddenly to Ax. “What do you mean ‘allergic’?”

Aqualad turned back to Robin, choosing to ignore them. “Then how did you know you could trust me?”

“We didn’t,” Robin answered honestly.

“I’m going to barf a trout?!” Marco shouted before almost losing balance. “Shit, I need to sit down.”

Robin rolled his eyes. “We didn’t know if you were safe,” he answered honestly. “But I thought it was important to tell you what we saw up there.”

“What you saw?” Aqualad repeated, confused.

Robin ran a hand through his hair nervously. “The Mothership I mentioned? It’s… Well, it’s semi-aquatic. There are Atlanteans onboard. Visser One, their leader, is a gold-colored mermaid.”

Aqualad’s face fell. He looked ill. “Neptune…” he whispered. He glanced around as though expecting to see a solution somewhere. Or maybe he hoped someone who start laughing and tell him it was all a big joke. “I… Wow,” he mumbled.

“Look, I can give you a complete file as soon as possible, but it’s important that--”

“ROBIN! HELP!” The two heroes spun to see that Marco was on his back on the sand, Cassie and Jake crouched over him. He was gasping and choking badly.

Robin ran over, sliding onto his knees by Jake. “Is this morph difficulty?” He looked up at Ax. “You told him something about an allergy?”

“He’s never been this bad!” Jake insisted.

<The allergy would only cause him to morph when distressed until the DNA is expunged. It would not restrict his breathing,> Ax explained frantically.

“Except he’s got gills,” Cassie said, pointing at Marco’s neck.

“Help me pull off his shirt,” Robin ordered Jake. “Something this tight will only restrict his breathing more. Ax, is there a way to induce morphing?”

<No, there is not.>

“If he’s got gills, you need to get him into the water,” said Aqualad.

“What the--?” Robin demanded, pulling back in surprise. Marco’s shirt had been pulled up, exposing another, much larger set of gills across his rib cage.

“We told you!” said Rachel. “He’s allergic to the trout morph!”

Robin shook his head and picked up Marco under the arms, pulling him back toward the water. “I don’t understand,” Cassie said, stepping out of the way. “Trout don’t have two sets of gills. I don’t think any fish do.”

“Some Atlanteans do,” Aqualad said, stepping closer out of curiosity.

<If these Atlanteans are related to humans, it is possible that Marco has the same genetic structures within him,> Ax guessed, <and the trout morph or even the morphing process itself has brought out these hidden attributes in a volatile genetic pattern.>

But Aqualad shook his head. “No, we changed ourselves. When our continent submerged, Poseidonis sheltered their city with a dome. Tritonis relied on magic to adapt themselves to water, becoming what I think you called a ‘mermaid.’ Over time, the two have mixed and repopulated Atlantis with a variety of aquatic people.”

“Uh…” said Jake.

Marco gasped awake in the water and started pulling frantically at Robin. “Hey! No, you’re okay! You’re okay!” Robin assured him. “You need to stay in the water until we figure out what’s happening.”

“What?" Marco gasped, still wheezing a bit. "Why?”

“Did Marco ever acquire an Atlantean?” Starfire, or perhaps Phyzzon, called, sitting up but still in the same spot where they’d collapsed.

“Acquire?” repeated Aqualad.

“We’re able to transform into other creatures by acquiring their DNA when we touch them,” Cassie explained.

“He never had the opportunity on the Mothership,” said Robin. He looked down at Marco. “Did you ever touch Aqualad?”

“Uh… no?” said Marco. He grinned up at Robin. “Not for lack of trying.”

Jake frowned and sat at the edge of the water. “Marco, you need to tell them.”

<Tell us what?> asked Tobias. <Did I miss something somehow? I’m really confused right now.>

Marco was glowering at his friend, still be held in place in the water by Robin. “He said ‘experiments,’ Jake. That has nothing to do with me.”

“Maybe he doesn’t know,” said Jake. “Or maybe the experiments worked the way Ax was talking about morphing working… bringing out… what did you call it? Volatile DNA?”

“Shut up,” Marco growled. He pulled his feet under him and pushed Robin aside, standing up. Soon though, he found himself gasping again, and he knelt down under the water again, glaring at Jake.

“This is gonna keep happening,” said Jake. “You need to tell them.”

“Is Marco Atlantean?” Rachel asked.

“No,” Marco snapped. Then, he frowned. “Not until about an hour ago, anyway.”

The Animorphs exchanged glances. <You became Atlantean on the Yeerk Mothership?> Tobias asked slowly, obviously still confused.

Marco stood again and groped at his neck. The gills were gone at last. “Yeah, that’s when my dead mother showed up as Visser One.”

“Visser One?” Aqualad repeated. He looked to Robin. “The gold mermaid?”

Robin nodded to Aqualad, then turned to Marco. “That’s your mother?” he asked.

He nodded, looking down at the water. “She drowned. Two years ago. There was never a body. She was… boating.” He sighed heavily. “I didn’t recognize her at first. I mean, I did, but I was just pissed that there’s some Mermaid-Controller who strongly resembles my mom. I mean… She wasn’t a fish last time I saw her.” He nodded again. “But I knew it when she spoke.”

“I recognized her,” Jake admitted. “Before Marco said anything to me.”

“Why not to us?” Rachel demanded. “You see your mom is Visser One, and your reaction is to swear Jake to secrecy?”

“Wouldn’t you?” he barked back.

“No! I’d rely on the support of my friends to make sure--!”

“Well, _excuse me_ , but support isn’t exactly what I’ve gotten for the past two years!” Marco yelled, waving his arms and almost hitting Robin. “Jake was the _only_ friend who didn’t leave because my loss made them uncomfortable!” He jabbed a finger at Rachel. “And I’ve heard you laugh when Woo calls me an orphan!”

“I wasn’t--”

“I’m tired of pity parties! I’m tired of being picked on! I’m tired of the looks of expectation! I’m tired of being handled delicately!” Marco ranted. “Just once, maybe I want to deal with this myself and not spend all my energy worrying about how _other people_ feel about _my_ life!”

Rachel, Robin, Cassie, and Ax all cast their eyes downward guiltily.

“STOP THAT!” Marco shouted, stamping his foot. Unfortunately, this only resulted in slipping on a rock and falling into the water. Rachel snickered and stepped forward into the water to offer him a hand. He glared up at her, but he took the hand.

One of Ax’s stalk eyes turned toward Aqualad. <Is it normal for someone to not display these Atlantean traits until--?>

Aqualad shook his head. “No. Atlanteans are born with the same traits they exhibit in adulthood. But you’re right. The genetics are volatile. This is why we exhibit so much variety. And experimentation has changed traits before. You wouldn’t be able to make a human into an Atlantean easily, but if Marco’s mother was half or even quarter Atlantean? It might be possible.”

Marco scratched his head. “I guess I could call Abuelito. I don’t even know how to start that conversation.”

Jake turned to Phyzzon who was still sitting on the sand a short distance from the group. “What kind of experiments did Visser One run on her?”

“What? You think I know?” Phyzzon shrugged a lopsided shrug. “The last Visser One I heard of had a Hork-Bajir host. I still do not who now holds the title, and even then I probably would not recognize the name. I was a warrior; I did not have much to do with politics and sciences. They did not allow Taxxons around the science department. It smelled too good.”

Tobias fluttered his wings and fluffed out his feathers. <Taxxon?>

Phyzzon nodded. “I was Taxxon, then briefly Hork-Bajir, before I was Tam--.” He winced, then said, “I _mean_ I had Taxxon and Hork-Bajir hosts before Starfire took me in.”

“That… explains a lot,” said Robin.

Phyzzon shook Starfire’s head. “No, Tamaraneans always eat like that.”

“I was talking about her ability to speak a Taxxon language,” Robin said, with a small grin. “But I guess that’s also good to know.”

“Great,” Marco grumbled. “So we have a Yeerk on the team, and he doesn’t know anything.”

Starfire smiled brightly. “Are you saying that you accept us?”

“No,” Marco snapped. “Shut up.”

“We should get going,” said Jake. “Before the Yeerks track the escape pod or someone sees Ax.”

Aqualad nodded and started walking out into the water. “Thank you for the information. I will contact you again, Robin, to get more details. Marco, let me know if you need anything from Atlantis.”

Marco blinked in surprise. “Uh, yeah, okay.” Rachel also noticed he was blushing brightly. He turned away to concentrate on his morph.

“Remember, Marco,” Jake teased. “Osprey, not fish.”

“Shut up!” Marco yelled, but he was smiling.

\-- --

Marco stood next to his father at the white marble gravestone of a woman who was not dead. “Dad?” he said breaking the silence.

Peter looked at him with surprise. “Yeah?”

“What if I told you that I have gills sometimes?”

Peter laughed. Hard. He shook his head. “I don’t know why that was so funny. God, you always know what to say, don’t you?”

Marco forced a smile. “Yeah sure.”

“Actually…” Peter said, looking at the stone again, and Marco’s stomach twisted. He wasn’t sure he was ready to hear the secret truth of-- “I was thinking about telling you that I talked to Jerry the other day.”

“Your old boss?” Marco said, surprised. “What about?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of the Atlantean worldbuilding here is from the comics. Mostly, though, we thought mermaids would be cool.


End file.
